Geotechnical properties of soil reinforced with Shredded Plastic Bottle

The rate at which plastic waste is generated yearly is alarming and proper disposal poses a serious problem. Particularly, recycling ratio of the plastic wastes in life and industry is low and many of them have been reclaimed for the reason of unsuitable ones for incineration. It is necessary to utilize the wastes effectively with technical development in each field. This study presents a simple way of recycling plastic waste in the field of civil engineering as reinforcing material. Reinforcing of soil in construction is an efficient and reliable technique for improving the strength and stability of soils. The technique is used in a variety of applications, ranging from retaining structures and embankments to subgrade stabilization beneath footings and pavements. This research experimentally studied the influence of shredded plastic waste on two types of soil (clayey soil and sandy soil) at different mixing ratios (0, 5, 10 & 15)% by weight respectively. For the two types of soils, a series of compaction tests were performed on soil samples mixed with different percentages of waste pieces to determine the maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC). In addition, the reinforced samples were investigated by the CBR test to determine it strength, the CBR values at (0, 5, 10 and 15)% were (2.07, 3.08, 3.90 and 5.13)% for clay soil and (32.7, 41.4, 53.94 and 59.88)% for sandy soil respectively. It was found that, there is significant improvement in the strength of soils due to increase in the percentage of the plastic waste. The percentage of increase in the strength for sandy soil is slightly more than that in clayey soil. Also, it was concluded that the plastic pieces decreases the maximum dry density of the soil due to their low specific gravity and decreases the optimum moisture content. It can therefore be concluded that plastic waste is a promising soil reinforcement.